mickan in world

This is the story of the best spent 16 dollars since sliced bread.
They were spent on a motorcycle tour across the hilly landscape of Da Lat. But to begin from the beginning:
Ones upon a time there were three tired travellers who didn't want to hear the alarm clock going off at 7.30. Regretting that they ever heard the word motorcycle they rose and had a truly Vietnamese breakfast (consisting of nudle soup and French bread).
At 8.30 they heard the humming of three motorcycles in the distance and rose to great the approching caravan. The travellers noticed that all three of the men who climbed off their Hondas each had a sign saying Easy Rider. One of the travellers took this as a good omen.

My guide, Thiet,  turned out to be a true diamond in the ruff. His skin is leather-like after 15 years as an Easy Rider; earning his money showing tourists the Da Lat landscape and agricultural past and present. When he started his business in 1992 there were 500 tourist per year in the hole of Vietnam. Today the figure approches a millon. Good for business, no doubt, but Thiet is concerned for all the new hotels being built in Da Lat. The land is getting very valuable, forcing the locals to move out of the city center. During the first part of our jerney he points out all the new hotels; naming the price per square meter. 

Our first stop is at the Dragon Pagoda and Thiet changes subject; telling us about the Chinese influense in Vietnamese history and showing us a prayer bell. Locals attach their prayers on the inside of the bell and twice a day one of the munks ring it; sending the prayers to Buddha, "by bell-mail, Buddha doesn't have an e-mail adress", Thiet explains, winking at us.

Our jerney continues through breathtaking landscapes. We climb to higher altitudes and gaze over the fields below; green in all it's prosperity. The climate is temperate here and the soil rich; allowing for the peasants to harvest three times a year. Using old agricultural techniques, no machines needed, they change crops so not to exhaust the land. As fertilizer they use only natural substanses and all the fields are family owned and prospering. By the road we see new, beautiful houses; all belonging to local farmers who has made their money from hard work; growing vegetables, flowers and coffee. Often combined with the sustaining of silk worms, mushroom farming and noodle making. Throughout our tour we visit flower fields, coffee plantations, mushroom farms, noodle making factories, silk factories, fruit plantations and more; all owned and worked by local people. Appart from the occational propaganda along the road there is no sign of Vietnam being a communist country, all is family owned and either sold at the local market or transported to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

One of the most rewarding sites of our tour is at the blacksmith's house. He makes knives and tools for the minority people living in the area. They come to him with pieces of metal they have found. Mostly old bomb shells and war material and he turns them in to agricultural tools. This activity slowly cleaning the land from the memories of the past wars. Thiet shows us different fragments of metal, explaining which are French and which are American. Doing this he turns to Andrew (who is from the US) and sais; " We don't mind the Amercans, we are not angry; but the French, they treated us badly. I was only inside my mother when the French were here but my father hated the French and he was a good man."

We stop for lunch at the beautiful Elephant Waterfall. Thiet explains that it is called so because it looks like an elephant. But after an hour walking around, looking at it from different angles we still can't see it. Concluding that the eventuall elephant ressemblance probably only is wishfull thinking; elephants being a sacred animal, we sit down for lunch. The exercise really helped for working up an apetite and we fully enjoy the local delicases with which we are presented. Gladly paying the humble sum of 20.000 dong for it (1euro, 10kr).

The day continues with more breathtaking landscape and visits to local farms and factories. When finally we say good bye to the Easy Riders we feel we have been shown a glimps of something truly Vietnamese and we all agree that this is a fantastic country and that the 16 dollars we spent on this tour was worth every penny.
Still weary with the expressions of the day we head off to the local market to see the end of the chain. There we bargain with the locals and end up bying strawberries, passionfruit, dried apricots and bananas for the next day's travelling. Also bying some souvenirs from home; coffee and artichoke tea (sounds weird but tastes heavenly).

Regrettfully jossan and I left for Nha Trang today, leaving Andrew behind to catch up with us tomorrow, when we will probably head off for Hoi An. Tonight Jossan and I though we would dance the night away at the Sailing Club...

Adios!